Day of the Tentacle

Day of the Tentacle—also known as Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle—is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the sequel to 1987’s Maniac Mansion. The story follows Bernard Bernoulli and his friends Hoagie and Laverne as they try to stop the evil Purple Tentacle, a sentient, disembodied tentacle, from taking over the world. You control all three characters, solving puzzles while using time travel to explore different eras of history. Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer co-led development for the first time, carrying over only some elements from Maniac Mansion and removing character selection to simplify production. Inspirations included Chuck Jones cartoons and the history of the United States. Day of the Tentacle is the eighth LucasArts title to use the SCUMM engine and the company’s first game to feature voice acting. Released simultaneously on floppy disk and CD-ROM, the game earned critical acclaim and commercial success. Reviewers highlighted its cartoon-style visuals and comedy, and it has continued to appear in “top games” lists more than two decades after release, with references appearing in popular culture.

Day of the Tentacle (Maniac Mansion II) follows Bernard Bernoulli as he teams up with friends Hoagie and Laverne to stop the evil Purple Tentacle from taking over the world. Using a time-travel setup that spans different eras, the trio solves comedic puzzles and navigates cause-and-effect twists to unravel the tentacle’s plan.